Fitch Expects Bristol-Myers Squibb's Ratings to be Unaffected by ImClone Acquisition

CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
Fitch Ratings does not expect Bristol-Myers Squibb's ratings and
Outlook to be affected by the company's announcement of its intention
to acquire remaining shares of ImClone Systems Inc. (ImClone) not
already owned for $4.5 billion. Fitch rates Bristol-Myers Squibb's as
follows:

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'A+';

--Senior unsecured debt rating of 'A+';

--Bank loan rating of 'A+';

--Commercial paper rating of 'F1'.

The ratings apply to $7.82 billion of outstanding debt. The Rating
Outlook is Stable.

Today, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced its intention to purchase
the remaining shares of ImClone beyond the 16.6% currently owned.
Total payment for full ownership is approximately $4.5 billion,
representing a premium of greater than 40% over the average share
price over the past year, and a 30% premium over yesterday's closing
price. Fitch anticipates that minimal, if any, incremental debt will
be issued to complete the transaction at the current offer price.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is in the midst of transforming its operating
model to a biologics company primarily focused on the physician
specialist. As such, the company is divesting non-core businesses and
completed the sale of its Medical Imaging business in the first
quarter of 2008 which yielded proceeds of $525 million. Additionally,
the company announced the sale of its ConvaTec business to private
equity firms for $4.1 billion. The transaction is currently under
review by European and U.S. regulators with an expected completion in
August 2008. The divested businesses represented around 10% of total
revenues and earnings. Finally, the company intends to offer 10-20% of
the Mead Johnson nutritionals business to the public market in the
second half of 2008, with expectation of receiving $1 billion from the
transaction. Proceeds of the divestments may defray the cash outlay
necessary to acquire ImClone.

As part of transforming its operating model, the company announced
in December of 2007 a three-year restructuring program to reduce costs
on the order of $1.5 billion by 2010. Incremental savings of $1
billion in 2011-2012 were announced at the company's second quarter
conference call. Also important to the new operating model, Fitch
expects Bristol-Myers Squibb to bolster its drug product and R&D
portfolios through business development activities, including
corporate and product acquisitions, licensing arrangements,
co-development and co-marketing agreements, and joint ventures.

In 2007, Bristol-Myers Squibb was able to reverse the revenue
decline in 2006 due to an unexpected generic Plavix launch. Revenue
gains from the pharmaceutical and nutritional portfolio are expected
through 2011as the company faces negligible drug patent losses during
this time. Revenue growth will be led by Bristol-Myers Squibb's five
top-selling products: Plavix, Avapro/Avalide, Abilify, Reyataz and
Sustiva, offset by loss of sales from the divestment of non-core
businesses. Bristol-Myers Squibb's patent cliff occurs in 2012-2013
concomitant with the market exclusivity losses of Plavix and Avapro,
and the termination of the co-promotion contract with Otsuka for
Abilify in the U.S. and Puerto Rico in November 2012.

Leverage (total debt to EBITDA), which increased dramatically in
2006 due to generic competition to Pravachol starting in April 2006
and to Plavix in August 2006, has fallen to 1.6x for the LTM period
ending 6/30/08. Fitch expects leverage to decrease annually (including
impact from divestitures) from operational improvement until the
patent cliff in 2012. The company's long-debt maturity schedule does
not include significant maturities around the time of the Plavix
patent expiration.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings
are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com.
Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this
site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality,
conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other
relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of
Conduct' section of this site.

Fitch Ratings, Chicago
Michael Zbinovec, 312-368-3164
Bob Kirby, 312-368-3147
or
Media Relations:
Brian Bertsch, 212-908-0549, New York

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